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Mars Activities
After the Moon, Mars is the second target for most players and the second most easy to reach place. Requirements Mars has a tenuous atmosphere that can be used to slow down ships. However, the Martian atmosphere may not be enough to slow down a ship approaching with high velocity. It may require to to burn retrograde to decrease speed. Once in the lower atmospheres, parachutes are useful to bring the craft to a touchdown but usually will not slow down a spaceship enough to a safe touchdown speed. A good advice is to fire the engines just before touchdown to cancel out the vertical velocity. Most players first achieve low Mars orbit, before descending. It is wise to use landing legs to increase the touchdown speed limit. Mars has little gravity, which makes liftoff easy. Atmosphere friction will not significantly slow down a ship. There are two moons surrounding Mars, Deimos and Phobos, both with very low gravity. Exploring them is very easy and requires only little fuel. This can be done as a bonus after a successful Mars surface mission. Also, these tiny moons are excellent places for building bases and joining ships. Sending a ship to Mars consumes a little bit more fuel then sending one to Venus. However, because Mars is further away from The Sun than Earth, returning to Earth will cost less fuel. Surrounding Mars There are many space missions that can be achieved around Mars, without actually touching the planet: Flyby missions just try to get as close as possible to Mars, entering or not its Sphere of Influence. These intended or failed missions still can be continued. If the ship still has some fuel left, it can try to return to Earth] to save lives of the astronauts (see Heliocentric Orbit Activities for details). Also, firing the engine in various points (a practice known as Deep Space Maneuvers), it is possible to finally reach Mars. Orbiting Mars should be tried before attempting to land. Phobos & Deimos are the two small moons of Mars. Their very low gravity makes them an excellent target. Because they are so small, it is a bit tricky to enter their spheres of influence. It is very easy to flyby them. With very little fuel you can orbit or land on any of the moons. However, care must be taken because of their very low gravity. The engines must run very low. Any attempt to run a rover on the moons is very risky. See also Phobos & Deimos Activities. Mars Space Station can be easily built on Phobos or Deimos. Because of the very little gravity, and the small size, it is easy to make ships land very close one to each other. Small ships can be merged very easy this way. On Mars There are many ways to get to Mars. There are one-way and return missions. One Way Missions Just as both NASA and the Soviet space agency did many times, one way unmanned probes, can be sent to Mars. However, with a rarefied atmosphere, landing on Mars is a bit tricky. Hard landings are common if parachutes are missing or if the parachutes failed to open. After the impact, nothing is left functional. Even with a parachute, this might happen if the ship entered directly from a heliocentric orbit, without slowing down. Nearly soft landings occur when only the parachute is used, without an engine burn before touchdown. They can damage landing legs, engines or fuel tanks. After the impact, the ship will most often fall and become unable to liftoff. In addition, there are soft landings. These missions bring in new settlers, equipment for building a base or a colony and science payload. Mars Return Missions It is relatively easy to reach Mars or any of its moons and then to return Earth. A large rocket (as big as one can build without the Parts Expansion) will do the task. Even more, many players managed to land on Mars and on Mercury with the same ship. See Also * What To Do In Spaceflight Simulator Category:Tutorial Category:Activities